Monday, August 1, 2016

When the shoe doesn't fit...

Wow... has it really been over 6 months since my last post? Things have changed ALOT in that time... Hmm, where do I begin?
Well, first off, I want to say that No- there have not been any huge life changes, like the loss of a family member or the addition of a new one! That hasn't been what has kept me away for so long.
This past school year has just gone by so fast and I have learned alot about myself in my career as an Early Childhood Educator.
I will say though, that the best part of relocation is that it allows you a chance to recreate yourself and explore new things and opportunities in life! The past 5 years of my life have been full of so much change and it has been a struggle in trying to find the right fit and the right teaching position.
Our move from Chicago to Buffalo, NY back in 2011 had proven to be a hard four years for me, as I felt that my teaching career was put on hold. The opportunities to land a district job in the field of Early Childhood, were slim to none and the teaching positions that I wanted were not there.
When we moved from New York to California in the summer of 2015, I knew that the change was going to be good. It had to be. I needed it to be. And thankfully, I immediately landed a job as a Spanish teacher in a Montessori School. It was a new experience for me to get a chance to step away from traditional education and experience another way to teach and see another way in which children learn. I jumped into it and enjoyed it right away!
BUT then...I stopped posting on my blog right after the Christmas holiday. It wasn't that I left the school or life became too busy. It just stopped being worth blogging about, without noting the disappointment that I was feeling. I felt I wasn't working to my potential because of the position that I held as just the Spanish Teacher. To become a Montessori trained teacher is a entirely different (and long) process that I was not sure that I wanted to explore. There were so many ups and downs... I know that teaching isn't wonderful 100% of the time and there are times where we just have to suck it up and just keep moving forward.
But it was only a few weeks after the holidays, that I realized that it just wasn't for me. I learned that although Montessori principles make a great teaching philosophy and it works for some children and teachers alike, it was just not the kind of teacher I was and it was not the kind of teacher I felt I wanted to be. The shoe just did not fit.
I am grateful for the opportunity I had to teach in a Montessori school and learn a little more about Montessori Education. But if I were to be completely honest, I have missed working in a school district. I have really missed the comraderie of working & collaborating with other teachers in and outside of my grade level. I have missed the feel of a bigger school community. I lost all of that when I left Chicago...and I wanted it back. I wanted to be working in a school, within a school district again. I was willing to give up my love for PreK, and explore other grade levels, in order to do so.
This spring, a new job opportunity came up to teach Kindergarten and I was all over it!

So this upcoming school year, I will be moving out of the PreK World and I will be teaching Kindergarten in a Dual Immersion School! I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am; not only will I be exploring a new area in my teaching career, but I am excited to be working in a school district again and to be working in a bilingual school community, that I feel will be similar to the one that I left behind in Chicago!
I have only taught Kindergarten for one year, while in Chicago, before I moved along to teach in the bilingual PreK program. So, teaching Kindergarten, in Spanish, will be something very new for me! And I am really looking forward to it!